g the governor's course therein. At
the end is a letter from the Audiencia advising the king to refuse
an increase of salary to the archbishop of Manila, with a note by
Fajardo recommending such increase.
The archbishop of Manila, Miguel Garcia Serrano, writes (1621) a report
for the first year of his term of office--which, however, he does
not send until 1622. He has been occupied in official visitations,
mainly in the city of Manila. Among the clergy therein he finds no
offenses, save that a few have gambled in public; these are promptly
disciplined. The cathedral is the only Spanish parochial church;
it cares for two thousand four hundred souls. Another curate is in
charge of the Indians and slaves of Manila, who number one thousand
six hundred and forty and one thousand nine hundred and seventy
respectively; but many of these confess at the convents of the various
orders. The Indians should have a suitable church of their own,
and Serrano recommends that the king provide one for them. At the
port of Cavite is a parochial church, which ministers to over three
thousand souls. The Indians in the archdiocese of Manila are mainly
in charge of the religious orders, as follows: Of the Augustinians,
ninety thousand souls; Franciscans, forty-eight thousand four hundred;
Dominicans, twenty-eight thousand; Jesuits, ten thousand six hundred;
Recollects, eight thousand. Besides these, twenty thousand Indians
are under the care of secular priests--making a total of two hundred
and five thousand. Serrano describes the method of government and
administration that is followed in the missions; the natives could
be more easily reached and instructed in a few large villages, but
the effort to collect them in these "reductions" has proved to be
neither satisfactory nor profitable, in the Philippines as well as in
Nueva Espana. Chinese converts residing in the outskirts of Manila
number one thousand five hundred souls, in charge of the Dominicans
and Franciscans. Among the Japanese who are in the islands there are
more than one thousand five hundred Christians. In the bishopric of
Cebu are two hundred Spaniards; the Indians and other people under
instruction amount to one hundred and nineteen thousand six hundred
and fifty. Of these about sixteen thousand are in the care of secular
priests; nearly fifty thousand, of the Augustinians; and fifty-four
thousand, of the Jesuits. In the bishopric of Cagayan (in northern
Luzon), there are but
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